Just as he considered reaching forward and ripping the pendant from her neck, Danny was moving. He heard the sob of pain that she could not contain as she tried to brush past him toward the exit, and his hand shot out almost of its own accord. He couldn’t let her go. He wouldn’t let her go.
His fingers wrapped around her wrist, sliding over the intricate lines of his sparkling black mark. He gripped her tight, drawing her to a sudden halt. And as he did, he felt the air swell once more with insidious influence.
She tried to pull away. “Get away from me!”
Lucas bit his tongue as the world turned slightly red around him. His mate was fighting him – trying to escape him. The wolf inside of him prepared for the hunt while the man in him noticed the shimmer of unspent tears in her gorgeous, multi-colored eyes. His heart cracked a little and his grip on her arm tightened.
“Let me go!” she hissed.
His wolf bared its teeth. His gaze narrowed. “Not gonna happen,” he swore to her as he began to look around the stone lamp-lit room. Magic pulsed through her body beneath his touch. She needed to be restrained again. If he didn’t immobilize and silence her soon, she would let loose with that magic and he would be helpless against it. It was what he hated most about magic. He was defenseless in the wake of it.
The cuffs that Lucas had originally used on Danny were now snapped in half and useless. But he had an extra set in the trunk. Just in case. He located the trunk against the wall and headed in that direction, pulling an unwilling mate with him.
She suddenly stilled in his grip and the air grew inexplicably colder. “I said,” she told him through gritted white teeth, “let me go.”
Lucas had no warning before the shock ran through her arm and into his hand. It felt like touching the sun and the white-hot power shot straight through his body, arcing up his spine and into his head, zapping his teeth in his gums. His heart fibrillated and he jerked away from her, hissing with the brief, sharp agony of it.
She took the opportunity to bolt, barely giving him a chance to recover from the shock as she headed straight for the cavern’s dark entrance. A rumble of fury rode like thunder through his chest. “Danny!” he called after her. His tone had lowered, becoming animalistic. His wolf was emerging and he was unable to stop it. His body moved, automatically switching into chase mode. He reached her just as she was coming to the cave’s opening, his fingers finding purchase in her tender shoulder. He spun her around, ready to rip the offending necklace from her body.
But in that instant, she spoke a single arcane word and the smooth curve of her body began to waver beneath his grip. Lucas growled, wanting to deny what was happening with every fiber of his being, but he was helpless against it nonetheless. Danny’s form warped, flashed – and was gone.
A breeze cast itself into the cave’s entrance, wafting salt air through the space where Danny had stood half a second ago. Lucas stared down at his empty hands, his breathing harsh and heavy in the cold night air. The scent of dark magic lifted with the wind, dissipating like fog on a sunny day.
But it was still there. It was inside of him now, eating him up. Someone was trying to take Danny away from him. And someone was succeeding.
Lucas threw back his head and howled into the night as the change flashed over him. A blinding light washed out the interior of the cave, and when it receded, a massive black wolf stood at the cavern’s entrance. The wolf growled low and long, baring rows of sharp, predatory white teeth. His glittering, glowing eyes peered into the darkness. And then it crouched low and its incredible muscles bunched before it bounded out of the cave, its body blurring as it bolted headlong into the waiting night.
*****
Danny hadn’t even known where she was going when she muttered the word that would transport her from Lucas’s cavern to some other destination. When she flashed back into existence in the middle of the redwood forest, she found herself falling to her knees, suddenly and inexplicably drained of much more power than transportation magic normally drained her of.
Immediately, she was letting her dormancy shield drop to make up for her waning strength. She knelt in the damp Earth, the smell of mushrooms and mold and wet bark assaulting her senses. She shivered violently and looked down. She was still only wearing her pajamas and the temperature seemed to have dropped, seeping into her body and licking at her bones.
Danny closed her eyes and tried to steady her breath. She wiped impatiently at the wetness on her cheeks and found her hands curling into fists. Her body wanted to break down and give in. Right there, right then, she just wanted to curl up and cry. She was a dormant who was marked by an alpha werewolf who didn’t love her. Was there a more hopeless position to be in?
By her reasoning, she had every right to surrender to the pain roiling inside of her in that moment. But she was lost and she was alone and she was literally feeling ill. She couldn’t believe the horrid turn her life had taken over the last hour. She needed to get home. She needed Imani. She needed the sweet oblivion of sleep.
With more determination than she thought she possessed, Danny forced thoughts of Lucas from her mind and tried desperately to concentrate on her power. She could feel it there, curling in and around her, but she frowned when it felt weaker than it should have. The tendrils were wispy and light and thin, like spider webs. Why? What had she done? She’d even dropped her dormancy shield. Why was she so weak?
A slight queasiness rode like a wave through Danny’s body and she stifled a sob. She honestly didn’t have enough strength to cast another transport spell. It was either walk out of the forest on her own or wait there for someone to find her.
The cold and the damp and her instinct told her to get up and walk. But logic and reasoning told her to stay right where she was and wait. And despite the desperation licking at her from all sides, logic won out.
Danny slowly backed herself up against a tree and once more concentrated on clearing her mind. Again, she located the fingers of her magic. They were so faint. She had enough power to make a fire and that was about all. It was incredibly baffling to her how little magic was there, but in that moment, she was just grateful that she had even that much.
“I need fuel,” she whispered. She pushed herself to her feet and looked around in front of her, allowing her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She searched for a few minutes, managing to locate several twigs, bunches of lichen, and a few larger logs. There weren’t many logs in the redwood forest, as chopping down trees was obviously strictly forbidden. But nature had its way here as it did with the rest of the world, and trees did eventually die.
Danny collected what she could and cleared a space in the small clearing around her. She placed the damp objects at the center and knelt before them, taking a deep breath. The materials were wet and not at all combustible at the moment; she was going to have to use some power to dry them out. And then she’d have to strike true with the flame, as she wasn’t sure how many tries she would get.
Danny closed her eyes, focused her power, and hoped for the best. When she heard the rewarding sound of crackling and popping, she opened her eyes again and exhaled. “Oh thank the gods,” she whispered. The campfire burned bright, instantly warming her surroundings.
She leaned in and held her hands before the flames, willing their heat to chase away the chill that had invaded her body.
A wolf’s howl cut through the night in the distance. Danny froze, her head snapping up in the direction from which it had come. She already knew it wasn’t a normal wolf. Not here. It was a werewolf. She wondered if it was Lucas.
And then another howl answered the first, this one coming from behind her, in the opposite direction. Danny’s heart rate sped up. Two wolves.
Two werewolves.
The second howl came again, definitely different than the first. It wasn’t that it was lower or even louder – but it was wrong. It sounded like a challenge, long and mean. Danny didn’t want to consider who it might belong to, but the warning prickle fro
m Caige’s mark and the heavy thudding of her heart told her all the same.
The fire that burned so bright before her sent billowing black clouds into the slowly lightening sky of early dawn. It was a beacon to her location. And her dormancy shield was gone.
She was a sitting duck and the wolves were on their way.
Chapter Ten: “Misdirection”
Danny tried to tell herself that though it felt like a year, it had probably only been a few minutes since she’d transported into the forest. The fire would continue to burn bright, keeping the cold at bay, so it wasn’t that she was necessarily uncomfortable. It was that the howls were coming closer.
How fast could a wolf travel?
A normal wolf could move very quickly if it wanted to. A werewolf would move much, much faster. She knew from experience that some wolves traveled faster than others. Malcolm Cole actually blurred to the human eye when he moved. Charlie wasn’t far behind him.
The howl came again, this time what must have been only a mile away, when Danny’s head snapped up at an entirely different and much closer sound. A twig snapped and she whirled around to face the source of the noise.
“Danny?”
Jason Alberich stood at the edge of the clearing, his hand trying to block some of the light of the fire from his eyes. He was blinking a little, trying to get a closer look at her. He seemed unsure.
“Jason?” Danny jumped to her feet. “What –” She was too shocked and she swallowed the rest of the question only to begin again. “How are you here?” she asked, bewildered.
Jason dropped his arm and stared at her with wide eyes. “I performed a scry to find you when Imani came to me, telling me that you were missing,” he told her. “What the hell happened? What in the world are you doing in the middle of the forest in your pajamas?” he asked, his gaze skirting down the thin clothing she wore.
“Oh, Jason,” Danny breathed, waving his question away. She was too whole-heartedly relieved to want to discuss the issue right then and there. What she really wanted was to go home, take a long hot shower, and curl up in an oversized fleece. “I can’t believe you’re here,” she whispered.
Alberich stared at her for a moment more, his stark green gaze clearly confused. And then he seemed to come to his senses. He straightened, swallowed hard, and took control. “Let’s get you home,” he said decidedly. “I’m assuming that since you haven’t done so already, you can’t transport. So, come here,” he told her.
The wolf howled again, closer. Danny jumped a little and Jason’s green gaze skirted to the forest and the unknown beyond. He shrugged off the black sports coat he was wearing and looked back down at Danny. She needed no further urging.
She rushed toward him and he held up his jacket in order to drape it over her shoulders. The warmth instantly penetrated her damp clothing, chilled skin and stiff muscles. A part of her wondered whether it might send the wrong message, but the weary part of her didn’t care, and she wrapped her arms around the coat, hugging it close to her body.
“Take my hand,” Jason told her, offering her his. She took it. Again, she was struck with how chilly his touch was despite the warmth of his jacket and the relative cold of her own right hand.
Jason muttered the quick incantation that would transport them, and Danny closed her eyes. She always closed her eyes when she traveled this way; it made her dizzy otherwise.
A few seconds later, she felt the world go still around her. It was like stepping foot on solid land after being at sea. She opened her eyes and glanced around. They were in Jason’s mansion. Candles in sconces lined the walls along with tapestries of the finest silk.
Danny felt a chill go through her so hard, it hurt her skin. She glanced down at her hand, still held firmly in Jason’s grip. Then she looked up into his green eyes. “Jason, why didn’t you take me home?”
He waited a moment before answering, but released her hand. She could feel the reluctance in that slow slip. He wanted to hold on.
“It’s obvious that you aren’t safe in your home at the moment, Danny,” he told her softly. He took a step back as if he could sense that she needed the room. “Imani came to me to tell me that your bedroom window was open and you had vanished without a word of warning.” He looked down at his large sports coat where it covered her pajamas. His gaze burned as he cocked his head to one side and arched a brow. “Would you like to tell me what happened tonight?”
Not even a little bit, she thought as she shivered, regardless of his jacket and the fire burning in the massive marble hearth against one wall. He hates Caige. She thought of the werewolf and her abduction and the mark that Lucas had left on her arm, and her heart dropped into her stomach. Oh gods, she thought desperately. As if thinking of the mark activated it, she could feel it tingling against her arm now. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. It was just all too real.
Without thinking, she covered her right wrist with her left hand. Jason did not fail to notice the gesture, and at once Danny realized her mistake.
Without a word, Jason came forward and reached for her arm. Danny pulled back. It was a reflexive movement. Jason stopped in his tracks and straightened. He seemed to consider her for a moment, his expression melting from slight surprise to slighter disappointment to being unreadable altogether. His black clad form towered over her now and his green gaze darkened, his pupils expanding and pinning her to the spot.
Danny felt her heartrate speed up. Jason Alberich had never looked at her like that before.
“Danny,” he said slowly, softly, “show me your right arm.”
It was a direct order, given to her by her herald. No witch in their right mind would disobey the herald of their coven. And yet… Danny stood there, breathing quick, shallow breaths, and considered doing just that.
“Jason, please try to unders –”
“I won’t tell you again Danny,” he warned her. He had yet to raise his voice. Jason Alberich had never raised his voice, as far as Danny knew. He was the very essence of calm and collected, just as his father had been before him. His tone, his very presence, carried enough influence that it brooked obedience and had done so since he was a teenager.
However, this time his calm, low tone brought about a different reaction in Danny. Against all logic and reason, she found herself wanting to fight him. To deny him. She didn’t want him touching the mark on her arm and she didn’t want him telling her what to do. She was tired and hungry and confused. It had been a long night.
So, instead of saying anything at all, Danny simply removed her left hand from her right arm and turned away from Jason. If she had to, she would walk home from here. Wherever “here” was. No one knew exactly where the herald’s abode resided. It was kept a secret and had been for generations – since the witch trials and the inquisition had ripped a chasm in the world’s reason. It was done as a precaution.
Danny swore internally and hugged herself once more.
Several seconds of tense silence followed in which Danny’s skin became increasingly more sensitive by the almost abrasive quality of the magical space between her and Alberich. She could feel his power all around her. It came with the territory and had always been there. Jason was an incredibly strong magic user. But now his power surrounded her like fingers of fog, licking at her – warning her.
She could feel him come up behind her, as quiet as a prowling cat. She hugged herself tighter and waited for what she knew was coming. She had no idea why she was so afraid to let him see Lucas’s mark. She knew he didn’t like Caige and she knew he would be disappointed in her. But so what? He wasn’t her father. He couldn’t punish her. Could he?
And then he was so close the tendrils of his power wrapped around her like a shroud, enveloping her in a cocoon of his will. She shivered, feeling the hardness of his chest against her back.
He leaned over her until his lips were beside her ear. He remained silent and she froze in his embrace as he slid his hands down her arms until his fingers wrapped possessivel
y around her right wrist.
Danny shut her eyes tight, but she didn’t fight him. His touch felt both tender and brutal as he raised her arm and slid her sleeve back, exposing the sparkling, shimmering knot that wove itself intricately across the inside of her wrist.
She wasn’t sure what she was expecting then, as she imagined him gazing upon the telltale mark of domination. But it wasn’t what he did. Very slowly, he lowered her arm, retaining his grip on her wrist. With his other hand, he cupped her chin and turned her head so that she was facing him over her shoulder, her eyes still shut tight.
“Open your eyes Danny, and look at me,” he commanded softly.
Danny did so. There was no reason not to. She opened her eyes and gazed up at him, at once struck by the tenure in his jade green irises. “How did this happen?” he asked her, his cold fingers still holding her face in place.
She swallowed hard and remained silent. She just wasn’t going to tell him that she let Lucas Caige straddle her, sink his fangs into her, and then mix his own blood with hers. She wasn’t going to admit that she had let him do it all because he had turned her into a wanton vessel of need beneath him. There was no way she was admitting any of that.
“I see,” Jason said, his green eyes glittering but giving nothing away. His lips were so close to hers, Danny couldn’t help but imagine them lowering to her own. It was a natural thing to think of when a man was as close and as overwhelming as Jason Alberich. But the increased tingling of the mark on her arm made her feel guilty for the thought nonetheless.
“You let the wolf do this to you, didn’t you?” Jason asked. His thumb gently brushed against the skin on her cheek; a lover’s touch.
Danny nodded. She wasn’t feeling like herself in that moment. The swell of willpower she’d experienced only seconds earlier that had given her the strength to turn away from Jason was all but gone now. It had been lifted and carried off on some sort of secret, magical wind. And now Jason’s piercing, powerful eyes were getting to her. He was subjugating her with them.